Campaigners in cluster ban push

Delegates from more than 70 countries are in Peru for the latest stage in their bid to eliminate cluster bombs.

The bombs drop hundreds of smaller bomblets across a wide area, killing and maiming indiscriminately.

Campaigners say the bombs continue to cause damage long after they are dropped and are calling for a worldwide ban to be implemented by next year.

An international campaign launched a few years ago largely succeeded in reducing the use of landmines.

The campaign used rational argument, shamed the users and highlighted the damage caused to innocent victims.

Now a similar campaign is being run to eliminate cluster bombs.

Thousands have been used in Laos and Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan and, last year, by the Israelis in Lebanon.

Mistaken for toys

Hundreds of bomblets are dropped across a wide area in order to cause maximum damage.

But many do not detonate and are found, often many years later, by children who mistake them for toys.

Former soldiers, Nobel prize winners, politicians and campaigners from more than 70 countries are in the Peruvian capital, Lima, to speed progress towards a worldwide ban.

Campaigner and British soldier Rae McGrath said there was no military use for cluster bombs.

"The impact on civilians far outweighs any small utility that there is and that it's costing the world a fortune in lives and in money to clear these things up," he said.

Russia, China and the US are among the major manufacturers but they are not at the conference.

Yet the organisers feel they have a strong argument.

Having stigmatised the use of landmines, they hope to achieve the same success in their campaign to eliminate cluster bombs.

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